This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole and cave site of Tjintjintjin, just to the west of Kintore Community in Western Australia. The roundels in the painting represent the...
This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole and cave site of Tjintjintjin, just to the west of Kintore Community in Western Australia. The roundels in the painting represent the rockholes at the site. An old woman, Kutungka Napanangka, travelled to Tjintjintjin from Malparinga in the north-west. The lines represent the tali (sanhills) she traversed during her journey. Kutungka knew of an ancestral kuniya (snake) that lived underground at Tjintjintjin. She proceeded to dig a hole in search of the kuniya, eventually locating and killing it. She then cooked it and ate it before continuing her travels east to Muruntji, south-west of Mt Leibig. During her travels Kutungka also gathered the edible berries known as Kampurarrpa or desert raisin from the small shrub Solanum centrale. The small circles in the painting represent the kampurarrpa. At Muruntji she was accosted by one of a group of boys so she chased them and caught all but the culprit, who managed to escape. She killed the others and cooked them in a fire. She then travelled to Kaltarra, where she entered the earth.